An Open Letter to PeTA

Dear People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,

I’ve received a number of letters from you over the past year, asking for my financial support for one campaign or another, along with many pleas to renew my membership.

One particular letter asked me why I hadn’t renewed my membership thus far. In June, your boss, Ingrid Newkirk wrote:

“Is there something that I should know about why PETA hasn’t received your renewed support this year? If you have recently sent your 2009 renewal gift, please forgive me. If not, please let me know why.”

Well, my answer is in the form of another quote from your organization in a letter I received in September. This is from a petition you want me to sign and send to my local McDonald’s Franchise Owner:

“I urge you to make your voice heard and call on the executives at McDonald’s corporate headquarters to institute [Controlled-Atmosphere Killing] as quickly as possible. CAK would reduce suffering for the hundreds of millions of individual chickens slaughtered cruelly each year, and you’d once again be viewed as a leader in animal welfare reform – a win-win for animals and for McDonald’s.”

So you want me, a vegan, who is opposed to the exploitation and slaughter of animals for any reason, to send a letter to McDonald’s, asking them to continue killing hundreds of millions of chickens, but by using a less cruel method of slaughter?

I thought you were against the slaughter of animals, period? I even have a PeTA button that says ANIMALS ARE NOT OURS TO EAT, WEAR OR EXPERIMENT ON. When did you change from animal rights to animal welfare?

I’m not really interested in making McDonald’s look good or making them more profitable. And I’m not interested in making it easier for animal killers to do their jobs or making people feel good about eating animals because they’re “killed with kindness”.

I’m only interested in one thing: saving the animal’s lives, so I’ll continue to educate people about veganism and you can continue to make deals with the devil, but you’ll be doing it WITHOUT my financial support.

And that is why I can’t renew my PeTA membership.

Sincerely,

Daniel K. Wilson

Animal RIGHTS activist and vegan